Sunday, October 09, 2011

Here We Go Again.....

It wasn't so very long ago that another Republican governor in Ohio allowed some shady stuff to happen. Under former Gov. Bob Taft, Ohio had a huuuuuuuuuge scandal which involved lots of people and lots of money. Those of us that remember "Coingate" and the resulting indictments of those in the Ohio GOP, are getting a little worried about the current Republican administration in Ohio, especially after hearing about this in the Dayton Daily News:

As promised, Gov. John Kasich is pursuing job creation at every turn, but his biggest successes have involved offering packages of more than $240 million in grants, loans and tax breaks to convince a handful of Ohio companies to sit tight or move just a few miles rather than pack up and leave the state....

...The Ohio Department of Development declined a public records request from the Dayton Daily News seeking copies of the ROI-analysis on half a dozen high-profile deals. The state considers those calculations proprietary.

This contradicts what Kasich told the Dayton Daily News in Wilmington on Tuesday during another job announcement:

“They’re not trade secrets. We release all the numbers. We’ll do that for you today. ... You’ll be able to tell exactly what the payrolls are going to be, exactly what the gains for the communities are, and exactly what we provided as an incentive......"

The Kasich administration has refused a public records request??? I remember a similar instance when Republican Seth Morgan made a public records request for some records from then Gov. Ted Strickland in 2009 (see DaytonDailyNews 4/7/09). Those records were released. I'm just wondering which person or group will step up, show some courage, and file to have these records released.

As a taxpayer, I'd like to know where my money is being spent. I want to know--
- why some companies are getting money (Diebold? Bob Evans? Wendy's)

- and others are not (Kasich refused to provide money for NASA see Plunderbund)